Lake Water Quality

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If you are unable to update the Flash plug-in on your web browser, or are seeing this message instead of a chart graphic, we apologize. Please use the data view or download the data using the links above.

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Note: The public beach on Lake Hiawatha was closed in 2004. This decision was made by the Board of Commissioners due to budgetary constraints and E. coli bacteria issues at the beach. Due to concern about this issue, monitoring has continued. Because of the beach’s popularity with the public and its continued heavy use, the MPRB re-opened the beach in 2007.

If you are unable to update the Flash plug-in on your web browser, or are seeing this message instead of a chart graphic, we apologize. Please use the data view or download the data using the links above.

If you are unable to update the Flash plug-in on your web browser, or are seeing this message instead of a chart graphic, we apologize. Please use the data view or download the data using the links above.

If you are unable to update the Flash plug-in on your web browser, or are seeing this message instead of a chart graphic, we apologize. Please use the data view or download the data using the links above.

If you are unable to update the Flash plug-in on your web browser, or are seeing this message instead of a chart graphic, we apologize. Please use the data view or download the data using the links above.

If you are unable to update the Flash plug-in on your web browser, or are seeing this message instead of a chart graphic, we apologize. Please use the data view or download the data using the links above.

*Lake Aesthetic and User Recreation Index

Why This Is Important

Minneapolis is known for its beautiful lakes, rivers and streams. Those waterways serve as important habitats for birds and other wildlife and offer a host of recreational opportunities. Keeping those waterways clean and healthy ensures that they continue to be key environmental assets for generations to come.

What's Being Done

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) and the City of Minneapolis work together to improve the water quality in local lakes, and to educate the public about ways they can help protect our natural waterways.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is the key steward for the City's park system. Key efforts to protect and improve water quality include:

Regular street sweeping to limit the amount of sediment and nutrients reaching the lakes

Installing and maintaining stormwater treatment infrastructure throughout the city

About This Measure

LAURI is a metric developed by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to track how recreational users are affected by the environmental health of lakes. Data for the index is collected by the Park and Recreation Board from shore and by boat to approximate what lake users may experience. LAURI tracks five components:

Public Health (E. coli measured at public swimming beaches)

Water Quality (water clarity/Secchi depth)

Habitat Quality (aquatic plant and fish diversity)

Recreational Access (availability and ease of public access)

Aesthetic Considerations (color and odor of water, garbage and debris)

Each component is ranked excellent, good or poor based on data collected from each of the lakes. Because of the wide variety of ways people experience the lakes, different components will matter to different users. For example, boaters and swimmers will want to choose lakes with excellent Recreational Access and Public Health scores. Habitat Quality scores will matter more to people who want to fish.

In 2009 the LAURI was further refined to give a more accurate, and science based indicator for the public. 2009 LAURI data is not directly comparable to past data. See historical Lake Water Quality data.